The Dangler

Sean lost his #2 rank. It began a few weeks ago with Ian wandering around the house, his hands up in wonder saying, "Pop Pop"? Later, we'd find him nose pressed to the front window, standing on a stool and waiting for "Pop Pop" to randomly pull up into the drive. Now, he greets my mom (Nanna) with not a hello, but a 'Where is Pop Pop?' It has everyone's feelings a little hurt, well except for my Dad of course.

(They fell in love at the Bronx Zoo)

Last week, Ian woke up for 6 days straight between the hour of 4am and 4:44 am. Like clockwork, his little cries pulled me out of bed. Night one I swore it was his teeth. Night two, the same. Night three I became suspicious and night four I was dang mad. This boy was playing me. The next night I vowed to leave him be, let him cry it out. And that is what I did. At 4:37 that morning his wails rang three very clear plea's. "MAAAAMMMA....POP-POPPPPPPP, NAAAAANNA.

We've been kind of laughing about it all week. That Sean's name was never called. That Nanna's wasn't even second. Smugly, I was still first and for that I am thankful. Just tonight Alex at the dinner table said, "Mommy, remember that time when Ian called me Nanna and he called Daddy Pop Pop in the night?". Oh how silly, he just got our names wrong. NO, those are actually his three favorite people right now. OR, the three people that are most likely to come save him, crying from his bed. That, he did get right.

Which brings me to the dangler. Tonight we all had a good laugh as we let Ian prance around naked prior to Jammies. He took off running in the kitchen, screaming with glee. This kid loves the Nude. And we love him in the nude. His stocky bowed legs, his dimpled behind, and his budha belly have us all laughing to tears. He circled the kitchen and came running back, and as he tried to climb up on the couch, Sean saw it. A dangler. He screamed out "He's gonna poop!" I told him to bring him in the bathroom as I'd just cleaned the old toilet trainer ring from the garage. We plopped him down on the toilet and he screamed the highest pitch scream of happiness! He started to pull toilet paper from the roll, and dab at his thingy. When he then touched his nose with the 'tainted' paper, Alex fell to the floor in a hilarious laughing fit. He was so proud to be sitting there, he patted his chest and glorified his maturity. "Potty!" he said. And sure enough, when I pulled him down from the potty, we saw it...the dangler. Just a wee sized hershey kiss-esk dangler now floating peacefully atop Alex's mountain of toilet paper. His prize, his masterpiece, his first initial deposit. Technically, he pooped in the potty right? So that is what we celebrated, we all screamed, we clapped and Ian patted his bum in his 'naked body' dance.

Alex insisted we call Nanna because in her words, "Ian was being just hilarious.". I'm sure that in a few months, he'll be able to tell these stories himself with a personal call to Pop Pop.